Electronic Portfolio for English 522
Dear viewer,
The purpose of this webpage is to demonstrate how the materials I have developed for this course relate to my personal and professional goals as an educator in the field of Teaching English as a Second Language and International Education. My goals are to increase international student support services, recruitment and retention and develop and conduct research that promotes better understanding of the need for increased international education and curricula.
For this course, I began with a memorandum stating a desire to develop materials for this course that would assess the need for increased international student support services and advertise a newly proposed English language support course specifically to assist in the development of international graduate students' advanced academic literacy. I wrote a curriculum for the course at this time based on the findings of the pilot study for my dissertation I completed this semester. The impetus for this newly proposed course serves several purposes, but largely supports the recruitment and retention of international graduate students and the University of Idaho's mandate for large-scale internationalization. Further, proposing a new English language support course has enabled me to advance my own doctoral research which examines international graduate students' attitudes towards literacy and how those attitude relate to assessed student needs.
I assessed student needs and international student enrollment trends across U.S. universities which show increased enrollment and expected increases from China and the Middle East specifically. The Situational Analysis I composed also assessed current international student support services at the University of Idaho for international graduate students which showed a need for a hybrid English language support course to enable students to attain higher English proficiency while continuing to work on their degree programs as already matriculated students.
From there, I developed a Media Plan to advertise the course, asses the effectiveness of the advertisement and also record the total course enrollment for Chinese students within the 2012-2013 academic year. The Situational Analysis and Media Plan afforded me the opportunity to hone my professional communication skills and harness research to demonstrate the need for my own research and additional international student support services. From there, I began work on a proposal for the Student Grant Award Program to help initially fund the course. As a PhD student in Curriculum and Instruction and Academic Family at the University of Idaho, having the skill set to work on grants for domestic and international education, research or special programs is invaluable.
Next, I developed a News Release of additional English language support which I have helped develop in addition to the newly proposed course. Beginning this spring, international student tutoring is being offered for free at the International Programs Office. The purpose of the News Release was to announce this additional support to bolster international student recruitment and retention.
Finally, I developed a Final Presentation using Power Point with a voice-over which spotlights my development of the course materials for this class and how they fit together with my research, professional interests and international student enrollment trends. The culmination of course materials, this website, allows professionals interested in Teaching English as a Second Language and International Education, to see how relevant course work can and should be to serving a university's strategic plan and more specifically, the personal and professional interests of a budding scholar such as myself. I welcome any and all opportunities to advance the agenda of internationalization in U.S. higher education.
Best,
Katherine Hellmann
PhD student in Curriculum and Instruction
College of Education
University of Idaho
Moscow, ID. 83844